The Climate Girl Effect: Fridays, Flint, and Fire

(Hardback)

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Description

From podiums on international stages to mainstream media coverage, from crowds of youth marching in streets, to social media feeds, everywhere we look we can see girls rising in the climate justice movement. Carolyn M. Cunningham and Heather M. Crandall examine these climate activists from the intersection of gender studies, new media studies, and environmental activism. They include cases about iconic climate girls such as Greta Thunberg, Mari Copeny, and Autumn Peltier (Wiikwemkoong First Nation) and lesser-known climate girl activists who design technologies, global non-profit organizations, and lawsuits against governments. Crandall and Cunningham reveal that climate girl activists are consciously intersectional and aware of how systems of oppression, including racism, heterosexism, and capitalism, impact the climate crisis. Scholars of womens and gender studies, environmental studies, and communications studies will find this book of particular interest.

Reviews

This book is an excellent entry point for those interested in learning more about the current wave of girls activism for climate justice. The authors are both scholars and admirers of the activists and movements they present, allowing them to capture the tensions at play, between anxiety and strength, media empowerment and fetishization, and the desire to change the world versus the desire to live normal lives in unprecedented times. In combining attention to girls studies, environmental activism, black and indigenous experiences, and social/new media savvy, the book makes notable contributions to how we understand intersectional and coalition activisms.

-- Casey R. Schmitt, Independent Scholar

Author Bio

Carolyn M. Cunningham is associate professor in the Communication and Leadership Studies Department at Gonzaga University.

Heather M. Crandall is associate professor of communication studies at Gonzaga University.